An email has emerged
suggesting a connection between the prisoner transfer deal
negotiated between Libya and the last Labour government, which
ultimately paved the way for the release of the Lockerbie bomber
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, and a £400m arms deal.

The document, which shows that Sir Vincent Fean, the then British
ambassador to Libya, wrote to Tony Blair in June 2008 saying that
the prisoner transfer agreement was "ready for signature in
London" as soon as Libya went ahead with the purchase of an air
defence system, was obtained by the Sunday Telegraph.

Blair was no longer prime minister at the time, but Fean
mentioned the two issues in a 1,300-word briefing for Blair
before a visit to Tripoli where he was meeting Muammar Gaddafi,
the Libyan dictator.

The prisoner transfer agreement was eventually signed in November
2008. It did not directly trigger the release of Megrahi, but it
enabled the Scottish government to release him on compassionate
grounds in August 2009 because he was suffering from terminal
cancer. The arms deal was never concluded.

The release of Megrahi, who eventually died in May 2012, provoked
outrage in the US and elsewhere. At the time ministers rejected
claims that the decision to allow him to return home was
influenced by commercial concerns, but the new email, obtained
using the Freedom of Information Act, suggests the Foreign Office
was trying to link the two issues.

Before he resigned as prime minister, Blair met Gaddafi in Libya
in May 2007. At that meeting the Libyans agreed they would buy a
£400m missile defence system from MBDA, a weapons manufacturer
part-owned by BAE Systems.

The following year, in his email to Blair, Fean said that he
hoped that the former prime minister would raise this with
Gaddafi in his meeting, which was primarily about matters
relating to Africa. Fean wrote: "There is one bilateral issue
which I hope TB [Tony Blair] can raise, as a legacy issue. On 29
May 07 in Sirte, he and Libya's PM agreed that Libya would buy
the air defence system (Jernas) from the UK (MBDA). One year on,
MBDA are now back in Tripoli (since 8 June) aiming to agree and
sign the contract now – worth £400m, and up to 2,000 jobs in the
UK.

"Linked (by Libya) is the issue of the four bilateral justice
agreements about which TB signed an MoU [memorandum of
understanding] with [Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, the Libyan
prime minister at the time] on 29 May. The MoU says they will be
negotiated within the year: they have been. They are all ready
for signature in London as soon as Libya fulfils its promise on
Jernas."

A spokesman for Blair said that it was the Libyans who were
trying to link the prisoner transfer agreement to the arms deal
and that the email confirmed this. The spokesman also said it was
made clear to Gaddafi that any decision about the release of
Megrahi was a matter for the Scottish government, not the UK
government.

The Foreign Office said it was not appropriate to comment on the
papers of a previous administration. A spokesman pointed to the
review published by Sir Gus O'Donnell, the then cabinet
secretary, in February 2011 covering matters relating to the
release of Megrahi. That concluded that the UK government did all
it could to facilitate the release of Megrahi, whilst at the same
time avoiding overtly pressurising the Scottish government, which
had the final say.